One eye on the road ...

South Koreans are said to be brilliant multi- taskers. Spend any time on their motorways and you would hope that reputation was well- founded.

Multi- lane motorways around Seoul are so clogged during peak periods that drivers cannot resist the temptation to work on mobile devices. Almost everyone has their phone or tablet positioned on the dashboard so they can keep one eye on the road ahead, and the other on their device. Bus drivers often have both tablet and phone.

This would be fine apart from the fact that — however brilliant the South Koreans are at developing and putting technology into practical operation — their road safety record is appalling.

South Korea has 14.1 deaths per 10,000 vehicles on its roads, compared with 3.7 deaths per 10,000 vehicles on UK roads.

This is despite only 41 per cent of South Koreans owning a vehicle, compared with 57.6 per cent in the UK.

In New Zealand, there are TONY VERDON around six road deaths for every 10,000 vehicles.

However, the South Koreans are concerned about their exceptionally high road toll. There is debate about reducing speed limits ( it is 110km/ h on some motorways and 60 km/ h in urban areas), and increasing driver training for young people. But, having witnessed the phenomenon of South Korean traffic jams, authorities will face a huge job persuading drivers to abandon their electronic devices, no matter how slow the traffic.

Meanwhile, this edition of honours Earl Bamber and Brendon Hartley’s historic category victory behind the wheel of a Porsche at Le Mans this week. Once again our young drivers are achieving spectacular results in international motorsport. salutes them. ABOUT US